Skip to content
EDWartens UK

Free course · Data and analytics

SQL for PLC and SCADA Engineers

A first database for engineers who already read tags: what a relational database holds and how it differs from a CSV export, installing MySQL or SQL Server and connecting a client, tables, data types, keys and constraints, INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE, SELECT with filters, sorting, limits and calculated columns, aggregates and GROUP BY, string, date and number functions, the whole join family, UNION and temporary tables, subqueries, EXISTS and views, and normalisation up to third normal form. The video lessons teach standard SQL; the plant framing, the practice tasks and the assessments are written by EDWartens.

See the modules

Free to learn. Verifiable certificate £19 when you pass the final exam (optional, VAT included).

Level
Beginner
Modules
15
Video
14 hours
Price
Free

Outcome

What you will be able to do

Install MySQL or SQL Server and connect a client to it; create tables with the right data types and constraints; insert, update and delete rows without damaging a table; write SELECT queries with filters, sorting, limits and calculated columns; total and group rows with the aggregate functions, GROUP BY and HAVING; clean codes and timestamps with the string and date functions; join tables and predict what an inner, left, cross or self join will return before you run it; answer a question with a subquery, EXISTS or a view; and take a flat spreadsheet to a normalised schema with keys you can defend in a design review. Every one of those is ordinary SQL. What makes it a plant course is EDWartens' own notes, practice tasks and assessments, which set all of it on machine, production, alarm and downtime records.

  • Install MySQL or SQL Server, connect a client, and read a refused connection for whether the server, the port or the password is wrong
  • Create tables with the right data types, primary keys and constraints, and predict which INSERT a constraint will reject
  • Insert, update and delete rows safely, running the SELECT first so you know how many rows will change
  • Write SELECT queries with WHERE, BETWEEN, LIKE, IN and IS NULL, then sort, limit and calculate columns inside the query
  • Produce shift-wise totals with COUNT, SUM and AVG, GROUP BY and HAVING, and clean batch codes and timestamps with the string and date functions
  • Join machine, production and stoppage tables and predict the rows each join returns, answer harder questions with subqueries, EXISTS and views, and take a flat spreadsheet to third normal form

Software

MySQL Community Server with MySQL Workbench, or SQL Server Express with SQL Server Management Studio. Both are free downloads and a laptop is enough.

Hardware

None. Any Windows or Linux laptop that can run a database server locally.

Syllabus

15 modules

Each module has video lessons, notes and a short quiz. The final exam closes the course.

  1. 1Why plant data ends up in a database3 lessons
  2. 2Installing a database and connecting a client5 lessons
  3. 3Statements, tables and data types4 lessons
  4. 4Keys and constraints4 lessons
  5. 5Writing rows: INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE4 lessons
  6. 6SELECT and the WHERE clause4 lessonsLab
  7. 7Ranges, patterns, lists and missing values4 lessonsLab
  8. 8Sorting, limiting and calculated columns3 lessonsLab
  9. 9Aggregates and GROUP BY: the shift report4 lessonsLab
  10. 10String, date and number functions4 lessonsLab
  11. 11Joining tables4 lessonsLab
  12. 12More joins, UNION and temporary tables4 lessons
  13. 13Subqueries, EXISTS and views4 lessons
  14. 14Normalisation, ER diagrams and a schema you can defend3 lessons
  15. 15Final assessment0 lessons

How it works

How this course works

  1. Watch the video lessonsOne module at a time, at your own pace.
  2. Take the module quizA short quiz at the end of each module shows what stuck.
  3. Keep your notesWrite in My notes beside each module and ask the trainer if you are stuck.
  4. Practise in the labOptionalTry a task from the module in the EDWartens Lab, in your browser.
  5. Sit the final examPass it once you have been through the modules.
  6. Certificate, if you want oneOptionalPaid, and only after you pass. Anyone can check it online.

EDWartens Lab

Practise this in the EDWartens Lab

Practise the query half of the course in the lab: write SELECT queries on a plant downtime export, group and sort it, join the machine tables and check the answers on a second week of data.

Works alongside SQL for PLC and SCADA Engineers. The Lab is ai for industry practice in your browser: no install, no hardware, free to use. Sign in as a learner and it opens with your account.

Open the free lab See the Lab
AI for industry: Build AI models.

Levels to try with this course

Optional. Skip it whenever you like: it never blocks your progress or your certificate.

Why practise in a lab

Technical work is judged on what you can do: wiring, commissioning, finding a fault. Doing a task yourself teaches more than watching it a second time, and a lab lets you try it safely before you meet real equipment. It does not replace working on real hardware.

  • Practise safely, so a mistake costs nothing.
  • The lab checks your work like a site test, so you know when it is right.
  • Free, in your browser, with nothing to install.

Certificate

An optional certificate when you pass

Learning is free. Pass the final exam and you can have a certificate for £19, including VAT, with a number employers can check online. It records that you completed a free online course; it is not a regulated qualification or a CPD certificate.

  • Your name, the course, its study time and your final exam score
  • A unique certificate number and a QR code to its verification page
  • Issued by Wartens Ltd; add it to your LinkedIn profile in one click
  • Pay now or after you pass: it is issued the moment you pass the final

How the certificate works

Sample certificate for SQL for PLC and SCADA Engineers

Credits

Who made the lessons

The video lessons belong to their creators. EDWartens wrote the study plan, notes, quizzes and the final exam.

  • Software Testing Mentor

    the numbered SQL Tutorial series that carries most of the course: statements and syntax, DDL against DML, creating databases and tables, data types, constraints, INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE, SELECT and WHERE, the operators, sorting and limits, aggregates, GROUP BY and HAVING, the string, date and maths functions, the joins, UNION, subqueries and views

  • Simplilearn

    the two-minute introduction to SQL, the MySQL, SQL Server and Ubuntu installation walkthroughs, and the long-form sessions on joins, GROUP BY and HAVING, temporary tables, subqueries, date types, ER diagrams and normalisation

  • NetworkChuck

    the opening case for learning SQL now, with a first query run in the video

  • Luke Barousse

    the analyst's walkthrough of SELECT, ORDER BY and LIMIT used in the sorting and calculated columns module

Questions

About this course

Do I need any database experience?
No. The course starts at what a table, a row and a column are, and assumes only that you can read a tag list and a shift report. There is no programming prerequisite. If you keep production or downtime records in Excel today, the first module will feel familiar and the rest shows you what a database does that a spreadsheet cannot.
Do the video lessons use plant data?
No, and it is worth being plain about it. Every video lesson in this course teaches SQL in general. Not one of them mentions a historian, a plant tag, SCADA or a production database, because no free course of that kind exists. The plant application is written by EDWartens: the notes, the worked examples, the practice tasks and every assessment question are set on machine, production, alarm and downtime records. You take the language from the lessons and apply it to your plant in the practice.
Is this the same as an Oracle or Microsoft database certification?
No. Oracle's Database SQL certification and Microsoft's data platform exams are sat with those vendors and paid for separately. This course is preparation for the SQL they test and for the SQL a plant or MES job asks for. It is not that certification, it does not count towards one, and it is never described as one.
MySQL or SQL Server, which should I install?
Either, and the course walks through installing both. Nearly everything taught here is standard SQL that runs on both, and the places where they differ, such as LIMIT against TOP and FETCH FIRST, are pointed out where they come up. MySQL Community Server with Workbench is the lighter download; SQL Server Express with SSMS is the same family as the SQL Server that many SCADA, historian and MES products are installed against.
What will I practise on?
Each module ends with a written task on your own line's records: the ten things a shift records and which table each belongs in, a downtime table with its keys and constraints, the LIKE patterns that match your tag families, the row counts an inner join and a left join would each return. One worked example runs through the course, a machine master with a production log and a downtime log, so a learner who is not in a plant today can do every task on that instead.
Is the course really free?
Yes. Every module, practice task and assessment. You create an account so your progress is saved and the assessments can be marked. The certificate is the only paid item, and only if you want it.
What certificate do I get?
An EDWartens Certificate of Completion, issued when you have worked through every module and passed the final assessment at 60%, with a verification code anyone can check. It is not a vendor credential and is never described as one.
Who made the video lessons?
The creators named in the Credits block at the foot of this page, on their own YouTube channels. EDWartens did not make the videos and the creators are not affiliated with EDWartens. What EDWartens wrote is the study plan, the notes, the practice tasks and the assessments.

The Professional Module is five live days of Siemens PLC, HMI and SCADA with an instructor, then a resume session and a CPD certificate.

See the Professional Module